Director Earl Nettnin (Desert Rats) called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and a moment of silence for the sick and departed was observed. No guests were present.

Minutes: A motion was made by Doug Conner (Roamin Chariots) seconded by Jamie Tannich (Mountain Masters) that we accept the March 11, 2014 minutes as printed; motion carried.

Treasurer’s report was given by Treasurer Sande Nettnin (Desert Rats). She said that we have no outstanding bills at this time; however, we will have some bills to pay because of the clean-up at Jim Sprick Park this coming weekend for items for the Hobo Stew.

COMP: At this time the only thing we have coming up soon is the Barrel Extravaganza in Longview at the Cowlitz County Fair Grounds on May 10th.

Membership: nothing new to report.

PNW Web site: No one had any issues with it at this time. Most of the delegates were finding info on Face Book.

Club Power/We Did it: Please remember to turn in paper work. The Club Power/We Did It is getting a face lift and when information becomes available we will let everyone know about it. Paper work should be turned in to Gary Harting (Desert Rats). Gary then records it and turns it in to the PNW’s Club Power/We Did It Chairman Kathy Greenwood (Offroad Animals).

PR: Clay Graham (Individual Member) is Region 4’s PR Chairman. If you want something sent out just get it to him and he will see that it gets sent out. He’s doing a great job for us, thanks Clay.

Trail Jamboree: The clean-up is this weekend at Jim Sprick Park; several indicated they planned to be there. The Region will be serving Hobo Stew at noon and a pot Luck in the evening.

LAND MATTERS:
Doug Conner (Roamin’ Chariots) said that he had talked with Brad Peck Franklin County Commissioner regarding Juniper Dunes; he said they are still on target with the 2016 replacing Peterson Road. (Side note Brad Peck is running for Congress hoping to replace the seat Doc Hastings has held for several years).

WENAS – not much is happening right now. They are looking at putting a new road from Cascade Park over to Barbeque Flats. Ron Rutherford (Jeepin’ Nomads) sits on this committee and he keeps us up to date on happenings.
LIBERTY – We have been invited to comment on the proposed Swauk Pine Restoration Project located in the Lion Gulch, Cougar Gulch and upper William Creek areas of Swauk Creek watershed (Kittitas County, Washington). The purpose of this project is to improve landscape level resilience to wildlife, and to restore streams and floodplains that have been degraded by roads, trails and past management actions. For maps and detailed descriptions, please see the full scoping letter at http://www.fs.us/nepa_project_exp.php?project=44149. You may also call, write, or visit the Cle Elum Ranger Station, 803 West 2nd Street, Cle Elum, WA 98922 (telephone 509-852-1100, during regular business hours 8 AM- 12:30 PM and 1:15 PM to 4 PM Monday through Friday except legal holidays). Please submit your comments by May 1, 2014 to the District Ranger % John Agar in one of the following ways – e-mail to FS-comments-pacificnorthwest-wenatchee-cleelum. Write “Scoping for Swauk Pine Restoration in the subject line and submit your comments in the message of your e-mail or as an attachment in one of the three formats, Microsoft Word (rft) or Adobe Portable Document format (pdf). Submit hard copy letters by U.S. Mail or hand delivery to the Cle Elum Ranger Station. If you are not commenting at this time but would like to receive updates about this project please contact John Agar at 509-852-1061. Earl is trying to get a hard copy of this document.

The Cle Elum Ranger District announces that Richy Harrod, Deputy Fire Staff Officer for Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest has begun a temporary assignment as Acting District Ranger at the Cle Elum Ranger District. He is filling the vacancy that was created when District Ranger Judy Hallisey retired after 25 years with the US Forest Service.

Ross Huffman (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) is looking for help with the Bald Mountain area, roads in the area need to be repaired and brought up to standard by 2016. Region 4 will be working with them; Ron Rutherford (Jeepin’ Nomads) is our contact person.

Chainsaw certification classes will be held April 19th and 26th at the Naches Ranger Station. Classes will start at 8:30 AM. If you have questions call Kevin Hill 509-653-1436.

Spring Trail Closures are in effect from April 1st to June 15th. Special permits will be granted to anyone attending the Liberty Work party May 17 – Memorial Day. Not sure if special permits will be given in the Naches area.

The Little Naches Restoration working group will be meeting soon. Doug Conner will be on this committee along with people from Fish and Wildlife, Yakima Nation, some environmental groups and other users; they will be looking at the whole Little Naches water shed to assess projects before applying for grants so when money becomes available they can go ahead with the project.

The Trail Counters are moving ahead, trying to decide just where they will be placed.

Ron Rutherford will be going on a field trip with Jeff Jones (DNR) to check out the Ahtanum – North Fork Short Cut.

The Nelli Restoration Project (we have been watching this for a while); The ROD (Record of Decision) was that we would be loosing 43 miles to trail but they have since pared it down to 25. Dry Creek Restoration project is an extension of the Nelli.

White Pass project is still on hold; Wildcat and Indian Creek roads will remain closed – no funds available.

1501 Road decommissioning of five miles of trail will happen. Earl spoke at a hearing about this because he was one of 3 who had submitted comments, however, the decision stood and five miles of trail will be decommissioned. Earl said we had lost the war, but at least we went down fighting.

Michelle King NEPA planner and Public Information for the Naches Ranger District makes an effort to send out information on district matters so if you would like to be added to her mailing please send her an e-mail to mdking02@fs.fed.us and ask her to put you on the list. Michelle had given a presentation at the TWIG meeting on how to make comments for or against projects since they have made some new changes in forest service policy. The Forest Service is required to post legal notices in the newspaper of many projects occurring on the National Forest. In the past they only published the notice in the Wenatchee World Newspaper, now projects will be included in the Yakima Herald Republic too.

Blue Mountain Forest Revision Plan meetings have been held over the past few weeks. About 40 attended the one in Kennewick at the Benton County PUD. Earl & Sande Nettnin, Doug Conner as well as several Peak Putters and representatives from Doc Hastings and Maria Cantwell’s office attended.
This plan has been in the works since 2003. They recommend alternative # E. Anyone wanting to see the Blue Mountain Forest Plan Revision Draft Environmental Impact Statement and proposed Land Management Plan contact Earl Nettnin Region 4 Director, he has a disk as well as hard copies.

The Naneum Committee meetings have started up again. Clay Graham (Region 4 PR and Individual Member) is the only motorized person on this committee.

A news release from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife came out listing members for the Teanaway Community Forest Advisory Committee; this is a 20 member panel who will advise DNR and WDFW on development of a forest management plan. There is one off-road vehicle user; he is an active hiker, skier, backpacker and dirt bike rider. Don’t know where they got the idea he was an off-road vehicle user, must be because he is a dirt bike rider.

OLD BUSINESS:
We received a thank you from Blue Ribbon for our one year membership and donation we made for their fight for land use and access battles across the nation.

The Slab Clean-up on March 22 was well attended. It was a beautiful day and we got a lot of garbage cleaned up.

A surprise retirement party was held for Yakima County Sheriff ORV Deputy Steve Sutliff Sunday March 30 at a Pizza place in Yakima. The Region presented Steve with a thank you plaque. We received a nice thank you letter from Steve for the plaque; he said he had some really good times with us.

NEW BUSINESS:
Clean-up at Jim Sprick Park April 11, 12 & 13.

We received a request for grant letters from the Naches Ranger District. These letters are due by April 28th. NOVA program is funded through a portion of your state gas taxes and RTP program is funded through federal dollars. They plan to apply for the following under both NOVA and RTP – 1. Backcountry/Wilderness Trails Maintenance and Operations (M & O). 2. Motorized Trail Maintenance and Operations (M & O). 3. Developed and Dispersed Recreation Site Maintenance (M & O). 4. Deep Creek Trailheads (we might only apply under one - we’re not sure what the best strategy is yet). They plan to apply for OHV Education and Enforcement Rangers from the NOVA program. If you have questions call Sue Ranger at 1-509-653-1446.

Mikki Douglass from the Cle Elum Ranger District has requested support letters from us; one for their Education and Enforcement program and the other for a new patrol Jeep. They will attach the letters to their grant applications. You can send a hard copy to Mikki Douglass, 803 West 2nd Street, Cle Elum, WA 98922 or e-mail to threedouglass@yahoo.com.

CLUB REPORTS
Mountain Masters – working on Jeeps and getting ready to wheel.

Roamin’ Chariots – nothing new to report

Desert Rats - Some of us will attend the Clean-up at Jim Sprick Park, some plan to attend the Liberty work party in May, We will handle security for the Cool Desert Nights cruise in June, and some will launch sprint boats at St. John’s and Tuttle River. Some of our group has been camping in the Tucannon area, and some attended the Slab clean-up.

GOOD OF THE ORDER
Doug Conner made a motion seconded by Jamie Tannich that we do away with the Pasco Region 4 meetings since we can’t seem to get our local clubs to attend; after discussion motion carried. We will no longer be meeting in Pasco.

Next two Region meeting dates for Region 4 will be:
May 13, 2014 in Moses Lake at Liberty Off Road 7:30 PM
June 10, 2014 in Selah at Magic’s Pizza 7:30 PM

Spanaway Moonshiners Jeep Club is having their 27th annual Playday at the Toppenish Rodeo Grounds May 24th & 25th. More information is found at www.moonshinersjeepclub.com.

Meeting adjourned at 8:50 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Sande Nettnin, Secretary/Treasurer
Desert Rats

Merrick Graves

04-10-2014 12:44 PM

I submit the following correction to the meeting minutes:

There are no USFS System Trails being lost in the Nelli Restoration Project. None, Nadda, Zip. What is being lost are User built horse trails that generally speaking have no motorized use. None of the user built trails have been included in the 25 miles of ROAD scheduled for closure. These user built trails received no consideration as if they do not exist. The roads that are being closed are old spur roads that in almost every case have another road that parallels another road (ie: if a drainage has a road going up each side of the drainage one of the roads is scheduled for closure) (ie: multiple roads go to the same common ending, one road will remain, the others will be closed).

It is interesting to note that a suggestion was made to the Quad community that this closure would be a good opportunity to work with the FS on a Road to Trail conversion. No comments on the matter were received.

The Horse Community is up in arms about losing their user built trails (although no one will accept responsibility for the trails construction). The Horse community is however working to improve their staging area and hopefully restore their trails with FS participation.